Daily Archives: January 21, 2012

The short version is that it would be good for Kobo first and for everyone else second.

1) Adobe can’t do it. And if they did, it would be for an elite, just as InDesign is, with its whopping price of $699.00. That is a tool made for the classes, not for the masses.

2) Kobo would benefit first of all by giving people a tool that would do the conversion Kobo itself currently does of changing ePub into their own Kepub format. This would free up resources at Kobo.

3) Kobo could also sort out the metadata mess. This tool would help everyone input the metadata that Kobo currently has to fix over and over and over again from assorted sources. This would again free up resources at Kobo.

4) Kobo would especially benefit by attracting writers. I would do this by pricing it at $99.00 for anyone — but free for those who publish at Kobo. Amazon currently attracts the most self-publishing writers. This would be Kobo’s opportunity to level the field.

5) Kobo would have a huge competitive advantage against both Sony and Barnes & Noble. Although the tool would output standards-compliant ePub 3 which could also be published at those stores, the chances are that most writers won’t bother since it would be a simple button-click to upload to Kobo via the app.

6) Kobo would finally be seen as having a leadership position in eBooks. Right now, Kobo is easy to fall off the radar — as it did in my case. Such a tool would change that, permanently.

I could go on, but I think these points alone should be compelling enough for Kobo’s executives to seriously consider the wisdom of developing such a tool.